CINQUE TERRE, ITALY

Day 63
Nuova Riviera
Santa Margherita Ligure e Portofino

After talking to Charles in Barcelona (one of the guys that got mugged in Barcelona that we were talking to at our hostel) we decided to do the Cinque Terre walk!!!

Cinque means five, terre means terraces. This part of Italy is a beautiful mountainour area that has five towns that are terraced with wine growning grapes (and yes, the wine is world known and yes, we tasted it, and yes it is wonderful!)

We caught a train to the first stop Riomaggiore and started our trek. The first part, to the town Manarola was just beautiful. Fantasic views, high, but just so gorgeous..how do i describe it? Breathtaking as we look below......the path is windy and rocky..and we thought, yes we'll do the whole trek. This is ok. We can do it. Foot surviving. (My operated on foot aches still, in the morning but once i start walking, it's great so haven't had a problem, the left foot is still rolling, but no pain, just precarious if i roll close to a cliff face!!!!) Gawd. Cross fingers!

We then found the cliff face was insecure so part of it was closed off. We had to go back..go around the track, and come out around where it was closed. Start again. We were thinking we probably wouldn't be able to do the 12 km walk.

We climbed steps, weaved our way along narrow paths, and climbed down rocks and steps to our next stop, Manarola.

And then weaved our way along to Corniglia. Saw LOTS of cats!! And took pics of them all..and pics of Greg leaning against the rock face wondering why i needed pics of all the pussies..ohh..Italian Cats i said. How could one resist them! And oh......made me think of little Millie and Tizzie....i wondered how they were. Honestly these cats were friendly..i took pics of the cats in the townswe stopped at...on the paths..on the top of cliffs..oh, so CUTE! Should have seen there little faces....

Far cuter than the dogs in France that were sitting at the tables with their mummies and daddies eating dinner...and laying little presents on the pavements that we had to dodge! No kidding..French dogs have the rule.

Italian cats have the rule.

Hehe...

Next stop we were wearing.....so we stopped there at the portside and bought what else but pizza...smothered in pesto!!! And just breathed a while..and decided to catch the train back to Santa Margherita...BUT...the train didn't leave for an hour and a half...and the last leg of the trek took 2 hours....

So we thought, what the heck. We're up for a challenge!!

So we headed off on the last leg, to finsh the Cinque Terre walking challenge. To MOnterosso. It was getting late too....8pm....and we were THE ONLY ONES ON THE TREK at this time of the night.

Madness had struck us surely!

We were even talking of climbing the Himilayas (Greg had done this but was sick when he did it..after a serious bout of amoebic dynsentry so is keen to try it again) and i thought...yes, if i can do this, i can do that. Apparently the Mount Everest trek, even though it's very challenging..it's less exhausting than this trek because you can only do a certain amount of trekking due to the altitudes. I reckon i could tak on the task...

Or climb Mount Kiliminjaro in Africa...or at least cycle through Vietnam!

My foot, to me, is totally cured. It's the first time i have been able to say that in a year. Like i said, it's stiff in the mornings..and the same thing is happening to my left ankle (rolling due to the loose joints) but there's no pain in the left, and the right ankle is great once it gets going. In fact, the more active i am, the better. Gosh...i felt on this Cinque Terre trek i was invincible. Well, almost. Hey...we're OLD now...so we probably won't do the Himilayas...but we can dream can't we!!!!!!

We got back in once piece, and both proud of ourselves. Greg has had the flu (again, he seems to pick these up in the trains!) and so he did really well considering.

What a place..Italy. IT's JUST BEAUTIFUL. This walk...was certainly one of the highlights of beauty....and we didn't even know about it till Charles mentioned it. Fancy that..we could have just gone right past this beautiful coast line oblivious to it's existence.

Cool hey. To find out about new places..on our way.

POROFINO next...